Scientific Interest(s):
Dr. Christopher Saigal's research focuses on cost-effectiveness analyses, quality of life analyses (including patient utility assessment), quality of care, costs of care and assessment of national urologic practice patterns.
Research into National Urologic Practice Patterns (Urologic Diseases in America)
This five-year, $7.9 million NIH-funded project is using secondary datasets, including those from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Disease Control, to document the burden of illness posed by the major urologic conditions on the US population. Saigal is the Principal Investigator for the data analysis portion of this project, conducted at RAND Health, and Co-PI of the overall project, administered at UCLA.
Research into Quality of Life Issues
PROST-QA is a multi-site prospective study of determinants of quality of life after definitive treatment for prostate cancer. Saigal is the PI for the UCLA site and oversees patient enrollment, data collection, and data analysis.
Selected Cancer-Related Publications:
Saigal CS, Deibert CM, Lai J, Schonlau M. Disparities in the treatment of patients with IL-2 for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Urol Oncol. 2010 May-Jun;28(3):308-13. Epub 2008 Dec 12.
Gore JL, Lai J, Setodji CM, Litwin MS, Saigal CS; Urologic Diseases in America Project. Mortality increases when radical cystectomy is delayed more than 12 weeks: results from a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare analysis. Cancer. 2009 Mar 1;115(5):988-96.
Saigal CS. Computerized utility assessment for cancer decision making: promises and pitfalls. Cancer Invest. 2009 Nov;27(9):937-41.
Sanda MG, Dunn RL, Michalski J, Sandler HM, Northouse L, Hembroff L, Lin X, Greenfield TK, Litwin MS, Saigal CS, Mahadevan A, Klein E, Kibel A, Pisters LL, Kuban D, Kaplan I, Wood D, Ciezki J, Shah N, Wei JT. Quality of life and satisfaction with outcome among prostate-cancer survivors. N Engl J Med. 2008 Mar 20;358(12):1250-61.
Saigal CS, Gore J, Krupski T, Hanley, J, Schonlau, M, Litwin M. Androgen Deprivation Therapy Increases Cardiovascular Morbidity in Men with Prostate Cancer. Cancer. 2007 110 (7):1493-1499.